Cartuna and Dweck Productions announced today they will be teaming up on a new distribution venture, Cartuna x Dweck, and—in what is one of the first sales out of SXSW—have acquired North American rights to Grace Glowicki’s DEAD LOVER following its Texas premiere at SXSW. While no date has been set, the film’s release will include a theatrical rollout.
DEAD LOVER is the sophomore feature from writer, director, and actor Grace Glowicki. The film premiered in the Midnight section at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, scoring strong critical notices with Variety praising it as “a striking meditation on identity, love and self-acceptance... One of the strongest indie entries of a young 2025” and RogerEbert.com calling it “an already ingenious work elevated by [Glowicki’s] enlivening performance… DEAD LOVER is a camp classic in the making.” Following its debut at Sundance, the film screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Göteborg Film Festival, with forthcoming stops at the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans and the Los Angeles Festival of Movies.
Cartuna launched its film distribution arm last year with a focus on animation, DIY, and cult cinema. It began as a Blu-ray label, most notably for the physical release of the runaway indie-hit Hundreds of Beavers, which had a busy month both surpassing $1 million in the worldwide box office and 10,000 Blu-ray discs sold. DEAD LOVER marks the first all-rights acquisition for the company and the first in a newly minted partnership with Dweck Productions. Kurt Ravenwood, Partner of creative agency SRH and producer of Hundreds of Beavers, will join the release to provide marketing strategy for the film.
"We firmly believe that we are at the early stages of a historic creative movement," says James Belfer, founder and CEO of Cartuna. "Inventive, boundary-pushing storytellers need more distribution support now than ever. This collective of producers has opted to take matters into our own hands and it's our sincere hope that it will inspire others to do the same."
Hannah Dweck, owner and co-founder of Dweck Productions added, “What Grace and her collaborators have dug up from their creative depths is like nothing I’ve ever seen before and we are so honored to be a part of this infinitely imaginative team. We can’t wait to set this exuberantly unrestrained, disgusting, beautiful, smelly, exhumed corpse of a rom-com loose on the world!”
Glowicki’s first breakout came with her performance in Ben Petrie’s 2016 short Her Friend Adam, which earned her a Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance from the Sundance Film Festival. TITO, her directorial debut feature—which she acted in and wrote—premiered at the 2019 SXSW and was awarded the Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award and praised by New Yorker film critic Richard Brody, who called it a “tour de force—of performance” and an “emblem of a fearsome time for independent filmmaking.”
In DEAD LOVER, Glowicki stars as a lonely gravedigger who stinks of corpses. When she finally meets her dream man (Ben Petrie), their whirlwind affair is cut short when he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap scientific experiments, resulting in grave consequences and unlikely love. The screenplay was co-written with Petrie and also stars Leah Doz and Lowen Morrow, and is produced by Glowicki, Petrie, and Yona Strauss. Matthew Miller, Olivia Nieuwland, Lexi Tannenholtz, and Rhianon Jones and Tristan Scott Behrends of Neon Heart Productions serve as Executive Producers.
“We feel touched by kismet to be working with Cartuna X Dweck! Individually, both companies are stalwart champions of independent voices in cinema, and we're in love with their vision for a united superfront putting out movies with a fresh, individualized approach. Ben, Yona, and I are thrilled to be putting our brains together with them on rolling out DEAD LOVER!“ said Grace Glowicki.
Cartuna has quietly been assembling a slate of films for distribution with forthcoming titles to be announced later this year.
The deal was negotiated by Hugues Barbier, Justin Timms, and Joe Yanick of Yellow Veil Pictures on behalf of the filmmakers and James Belfer on behalf of Cartuna x Dweck.
ABOUT CARTUNA Founded by James Belfer and Adam Belfer, Cartuna is a Brooklyn-based distribution and production company focused on animation, puppetry, DIY art, and alt-comedy. They produced the Blu-ray release of the cult-hit HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS, ADAM GREEN’S ALADDIN, NOVA SEED and Sundance Special Jury Prize winner NUTS!. Upcoming projects by Cartuna and the Belfers include recent Sundance Premieres OBEX and BY DESIGN, AJ GOES TO THE DOG PARK, THE JOHNNY RYAN MOVIE and SILENCE SOMETIMES. Past producing credits include STRAWBERRY MANSION, SYLVIO, Berlinale Silver Bear winner PRINCE AVALANCHE, COMPLIANCE and Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner LIKE CRAZY. They also made their Broadway debut investing in the record-breaking comedy OH, MARY!.
ABOUT DWECK PRODUCTIONS
Dweck Productions creates original, director-driven films and makes financial investments to seed film production. Led by Hannah Dweck and Theodore Schaefer, their movies challenge traditional storytelling and push the boundaries of cinematic expression. Notable film releases include Tyler Taormina’s CHRISTMAS EVE IN MILLER’S POINT (IFC Films), Joel Potrykus’s VULCANIZADORA (Oscilloscope), Dustin Guy Defa’s THE ADULTS (Universal), and Jane Schoenbrun’s WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR (Utopia/HBO).
ABOUT YELLOW VEIL PICTURES
Yellow Veil Pictures is a New York City and Los Angeles-based worldwide film sales and distribution company founded by Hugues Barbier, Justin Timms, and Joe Yanick in 2018. Focusing exclusively on boundary pushing genre cinema, Yellow Veil seeks to highlight emergent filmmakers who exist on the cusp of commercial, arthouse cinema, while maintaining a unique focus on festival strategy and production and packaging.
Launching out of the 2018 Frontières Market at the Fantasia International Film Festival, with Tilman Singer’s debut LUZ. Yellow Veil have since worked on debuts from Josh Lobo (I TRAPPED THE DEVIL), A.T. White (STARFISH), Jack Henry Robbins (VHYES), as well as boarding films by Larry Fessenden (DEPRAVED), George A. Romero (THE AMUSEMENT PARK) , Philip Gelatt & Morgan Galen King (THE SPINE OF NIGHT) and Toby Poser, Zelda Adams and John Adams (HELLBENDER; WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS).
Yellow Veil Pictures have released films domestically including Gaspar Noé’s LUX ÆTERNA, Adil & Bilall’s Cannes Midnight selection REBEL, Weston Razooli’s RIDDLE OF FIRE, Frida Kempff’s Sundance hit KNOCKING, Charlotte Le Bon Cannes Fortnights selection FALCON LAKE and the Venice and TIFF selection THE LONG WALK from director Mattie Do. In addition, Yellow Veil Pictures acts as the festival agent for Shudder’s WHEN EVIL LURKS, V/H/S/85, SUITABLE FLESH, STOPMOTION and more.